Growing Up

Believe it or not, there was a time in my life when the idea of paradise was completely unappealing to me. I was actually frightened by it!

I was a child then, probably not quite ten years old, and I refused to talk or think about life in the New World. My parents carefully avoided the subject during our Family Worship evening, instead focusing on things that were practical at the time to help me get through pressure at school, the stress of moving and finding new friends, and avoiding problems common to preteens. But no paradise. No talk of the resurrection. Even chatting about playing with animals in a worldwide garden was off limits. My parents were discerning and sensitive about the issue, and it paid off.

Looking back now, I realize how silly I must have seemed, but I still remember clearly my anxiety. At its core, it was a fear of the unknown. I didn't want to live forever. The mere concept of eternity was perplexing and overwhelming to me.

Around that same time, I remember hearing a brother give a talk about the meaning of "forever". He asked the audience to imagine a seagull picking up a grain of rice in its beak every hundred years and dropping it into the ocean. "How long would it take for the ocean to be filled?" he asked. "That's still just a fraction of the meaning of forever."

As a kid, that mental image was terrifying! I certainly didn't want to wait around on beaches, watching a bird carry stuff over the ocean every century! I assumed life just dragging on like that would be impossibly boring and tedious, that we'd all be reduced to mindless drones going about our endless daily lives.

Of course, things would eventually change for me.

Fast forward a few decades, and here I am studying the Bible with a young person of my own. Although he isn't my fleshly son, I've known him for most of his life and seen him grow up. And oddly enough, despite not being related by blood, I see so much of myself in him.

It's funny how young ones can develop sudden thought patterns that appear to come from nowhere. Things once accepted as facts are now picked apart skeptically. Pastimes once enjoyed are now avoided obdurately. Tastes and hobbies and fashions change.

But if I've learned one thing from my own parents, it's to be patient, understanding, and accommodating as possible.